Kenya: Youth Call For Involvement In County Affairs

The youth have appealed to the county governments to grant them a chance to participate in policy formulations that affect their lives to enable them build capacity and develop sense of ownership.

The Nakuru county Youth leader, John Maina regretted that devolved units have continued to make decisions on their behalf without any meaningful consultation.

Speaking during a press conference in Nakuru town on Thursday, Maina said the current debate in the county whether they should spend some Sh.54 million on youth internship or entrepreneurship training, would have been avoided, if they had been involved from the very planning level.

Last week, the county government announced that they were going to recruit a number of youths as interns, but there was hue and cry over the increased spending on salaries, which has affected development programs. The county has a huge wage bill, which is often blamed on over employment.

Maina urged the county to advertise for the internships posts and have an independent panel to avoid favoritism and nepotism during the selection process.

However, some youth have argued that spending so much money for only six months of internship, might not assist them in the long run.

He said when youths are engaged from earlier stages of governance, they become active community members who are more likely to be engaged in the democratic process of their country.

Noting that the county has a high population of youth, mainly involved in hawking and other menial jobs despite having college education, the youth leader appealed to the county government to reconsider channeling the internship money to training in agri-business, since there were more opportunities in the sector due to availability of land, thus promoting food security agenda.